Skeleton Keys
by RainbowVeins1612
Summary: Jem has spent her entire life on the run but when her mother dies and she's sent to live with the only blood relative that'll claim her, things are about to get a little more interesting in Mystic Falls, you know along with the devil himself and his Salvatore Brothers vampire minions running around, how more interesting can it really get?
1. Chapter 1

Out of all the family members that could have decided to take pity on me, I was stuck with the crazy aunt my mother had spent the last seventeen years ignoring letters from and moving whenever she could to try an avoid. I didn't have a choice of course, being only seventeen meant I was sent wherever the government decided was best for me, they thought being with a blood relative was best for me.

Her house looked normal, the way my mum described her I thought she maybe lived in a shack in the woods surrounded by a graveyard or something, but no. Even in the dark of the coming night time her house seemed normal, it even had a porch swing. It sat in pretty little row of other pretty houses on a pretty little street, in the pretty little town of Mystic Falls. Everything was pretty and I hated it.

The front door opened, pooling light from the house out onto the garden path, Standing in the arch of the door was a tall woman with long blonde hair and golden eyes, she looked so much like my mother I stood startled for more than a moment.

"Well it's no good standing out there." She spoke and her voice was firm yet gentle. "Come inside child, I've waited forever to meet you." The illusion that my mother was somehow alive was shattered and I made my way up the garden path and into the house.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you sat in this house, Jem." My aunt said as she brought in two cups of tea and set them down on the coffee table. I sat on the edge of the sofa, my one duffle bag on the hard wood floor at my boot clad feet.

"Happy to be here," I replied not trying to hide my sarcasm in the least. My aunt was unfazed by my lack of manners, she simply sipped her tea.

"I hope you like your room," my aunt continued, "It was your mother's when she lived here."

"My mum lived here?" I asked, I never knew my mum had ever been near Mystic Falls, let alone lived here.

"Oh yeah, she grew up here." My aunt replied, "This was your grandparent's house before it was mine. It was supposed to be yours too, before your mother ran away."

"Why did she run away?" I asked, I'd asked my mum the same question plenty of times but she never gave me a real answer, it was always some half truth about needing to get away from it all, she never explained what 'it all' was.

"That's a story for another time, I think." She said, to my disappointment. "Now, it's getting late and you must be tired." The woman stood up slowly, with an elegance my mother had always lacked. "Let me show you upstairs."

I picked up my bag and followed her, even if I didn't plan on being here long enough to need a tour of the house, I was tired and the thought of a comfy bed was quite enticing.

"Well, this is it." My aunt said pushing open a white wood door and flicking on the light switch to illuminate a bedroom that looked nothing like how would have pictured my mother's teenage bedroom. My mother was a frantic woman, borderline paranoid and this room looked so, normal. I wandered in, dropping my bag on the floor by the end of the bed as I looked around, taking in the thought that perhaps I didn't know my mother at all.

"I left it how it was," My aunt said leaning in the door frame, "I guess some part of me always thought she might come back." She laughed to herself a little, "Well get some rest, we've got a lot to do tomorrow." She closed the door behind her as she left, leaving me alone in a room that felt more foreign to me than some of the actual foreign countries my mother had taken me too.

* * *

I didn't remember falling asleep, the last thing I could remember was sitting down on my mum's old bed and trying to plan what my next move was. I must have been tire though, I didn't even change out of my clothes.

A knock on the door startled me into action and I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on and stood ready to attack. I calmed down instantly and sighed to myself when my Aunt's voice came from the other side of the wood, "Jem are you up?" She asked. I lowered the silver picture frame I'd grabbed from the nightstand to my side.

"Uh, yeah, Aunt Viviane." I called back to her, "I'll be down in a minute." I took a few deep breaths, I was getting as paranoid as my mother. I replaced the picture frame back to where it belonged and the photo it held caught my eye. My mum looked so young, probably the same age as me, in the photo and across from her, my aunt, they were identical. My mother had never mentioned if they were twins but I was starting to suspect they were. Between them though was a boy, handsome, with green eyes so familiar my heart fell into my stomach.

I quickly changed into fresh clothes, an oversized, dark green sweater and some dark jeans. Then I picked up the framed again and carried it down the stairs to my aunt in the kitchen. She was cooking and whatever it was smelled amazing.

"You can just call me Viv you know," aunt Vivian said, without turning away from the oven to face me. "Everyone does," Then she turned round and her eyes went immediately to the frame in my hand. "Oh, I forgot that was in there." She said and wiped her hands on her pretty little apron.

"Is this my dad?" I asked and my aunt looked completely unprepared for this question, though she must have been expecting it.

"Jem, why don't you sit down?" She asked pulling out two of the stools of the breakfast counter.

"I don't want to sit down, I want some answers and then I want to get out of this _awful_ pretty little town." I stressed to her as simply as I could.

"You can't leave, Jem." My aunt replied and I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Can't I?" I replied, "Just watch me." And I turned on my heel and headed straight for the front door, I'd only managed to open it a little when suddenly I froze, not by choice but by some power I couldn't seem to force any part of me to move except my eyes.

"No, Jem." My aunt said, coming up behind me and closing the door I had managed to open a little. "You really can't."

That's how I found out my Aunt Viviane was not crazy, but she was a **witch.**

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _Well there you go, first chapter. Hope it wasn't too awful **~RainbowVeins**_


	2. Chapter 2

Aunt Viv explained what she could, she also said she couldn't tell me everything because it wasn't time yet, whatever that meant. She wouldn't say a word about my father, except to confirm the boy in the photograph was him. Now I was stuck in the boring, pretty little town until I get my answers, so I did the only thing I could think of to do, I told my Aunt I was going to school and I found the nearest bar.

Like a lot of kids my age, I had a fake ID and could pass for whatever age it said on it, I'd never bothered to check. Even the bar in Mystic Falls was boring, mostly empty except for the bartender and a handful of patrons but the liquor was good if the bottle of vodka that had taken up residency next to my glass was anything to go by.

"I think you'll find, bourbon is a better drink to drown your sorrows in." A guy sat two bar stools away from me piped up. "Though you look a little young to be drowning your sorrows at all." He flashed me the smile he probably used on all the girls, and it probably got him whatever he wanted too. He was handsome though, silvery eyes and dark hair, classically good looking features. That didn't mean his smile was going to get him anywhere with me.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" I retorted as I poured myself another shot. It didn't stay in the glass long but in the time it took me to pour my shot and drink it, the guy had moved over a seat so he sat on the stool beside my own.

"Oh, I could." The guy replied, "But that wouldn't be any fun now, would it?" If my glass had had any liquid in it, I'd have poured it over his knees. I was about to come up with a witty retort when another voice joined the conversation.

"Oh brother, must you always play with your food." I looked over my shoulder, if the two were brothers they looked nothing alike, the one beside me was all doom and darkness, the one behind me was light and gold.

"Well, when it looks so delicious, why not?" The dark haired one replied, putting his hand on my shoulder and staring into my eyes like he was trying to see right into my soul. "Don't move," He told me, the guy was obviously crazy if he thought simply telling me to stay put was going to make me obey him.

I picked up my bottle of Vodka and hopped off my stool, the guy looked annoyed for only a second before his amused smile was back in place on his lips, I started heading for the door.

"Vervain perhaps?" The golden boy suggested as I walked away.

"More fun." The other boy replied and before I had even made it to the door he was back in front of me, so close my nose practically rested against his chest, I took a step back. He was a lot taller than me, but at only five foot, that wasn't hard. I taken on bigger but never two at once. The rest of the patrons and even the bartender had vacated the place, one smell of trouble and they'd up and ran I supposed.

"You picked the wrong day to get on my bad side," I sighed and placed my vodka bottle on the nearest table, wouldn't want it to get broken. Once my hands were free, I threw a punch. I'd taken classes in self-defence and my mother had taught me dirty tricks to pull if you wanted to win an unfair fight, the rest was pure instinct. My punch lined squarely with his jaw, while he rubbed the spot on his cheek I had hit, it didn't even seem to faze him.

"I'm going to enjoy eating you." He said and lunged towards me, I scrambled backwards only to find myself caught by the other brother. The two of them were faster than anyone I'd ever fought before, unnaturally fast and I couldn't keep up. For every punch I got in, they got in more until finally the dark one grabbed me and I couldn't get out of it.

He tilted my head back to expose my neck and offered me like a drink to his brother, who lifted his hand in an 'after you' kind of manner. I felt the fangs caress my neck, too long for normal human teeth, too thin to be a dogs. I wondered if this was the same creature that killed my mother, they'd said it was an animal attack but I was starting to doubt that now.

His teeth sunk into my neck and I thought I was going to die, there was a flash of light and a sudden warmth and I thought that must be what death was like but after the longest seconds of my life, I opened my eyes and I was alive. The two guy lay unconscious on the wooden floor and before I could think, I ran. My vodka bottle still on the table, abandoned in my sudden flight.

I ran home, that was a strange word to me, home had never been a word I had the chance to use but I was using it now. I ran home, to my Aunt Viv who greeted me in the hallway with concerned looks and wrapped me in her arms as I sank to the floor. I wasn't a crier and I didn't cry now mainly because of the state of shock I was in. I could feel the marks on my neck where his teeth had been, they'd already started to close up and any pain I was feeling from fighting was already fading.

"Am I a witch, Aunt Viv?" I asked as we sat still on the floor of the entrance hall.

"No, Jem. You're not a witch." She rocked me a little, I wanted to scream at her that I wasn't a baby but somehow it was comforting so I let her continue. "You're so much more than that." She didn't explain to me what she meant and somehow I knew she wasn't going too.

Eventually I managed to lift myself up and my Aunt and I sat down in the kitchen as she made some tea and I explained to her what happened.

"I think you just met the Salvatore Brothers." My aunt told me when I had finished. "They've been out of town for a few months now but if they're back, that means trouble. A lot of trouble."

"What are they?" I asked and my Aunt looked at me with worry in her eyes, like she was debating whether or not to drag me into it. News flash, I was already in whatever was happening in this town. "What are they?" I repeated.

"Vampires." Aunt Viviane replied, "And not the good ones."

"There are good vampires?" I asked dubiously, If I hadn't seen them with my own eyes I may have thought Aunt Viv was as crazy as my mother had always said but right now I was willing to accept whatever creatures she told me were real were just that, real.

"Of course, those two were okay once upon a time, but now," She hesitated, "Well, lets just say they've lost their way a little."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, "For someone who hardly leaves the house, you sure seem to know a lot about what's going on in this town." Aunt Viv smiled at me.

"I used to be very good friends with the Sheriff, god rest her soul." She put her hand to her heart for a second, "Now her daughter, Caroline – a vampire I might add, keeps me somewhat in the loop. She'll be here for dinner tomorrow, you'll get to meet her."

My aunt sent me upstairs after that to get some rest. I didn't have the energy to argue with her so I climbed into bed and was asleep before I could think about anything else.

-0-

 _I was dreaming, I knew that because I remember going to sleep but something was making me feel like I was awake. Looking around me was impossible because there was nothing to see, all there was, was white. There didn't see to be any distance to the area, like suddenly the words was two dimensional and everything was white._

 _"Oh Jem," A voice from behind me, a voice I recognised but couldn't place. I turned to see who it belonged to and I did know him, though I'd never met him or heard his voice. He was tall, unlike me but we had the same features, the same emerald eyes, the same dark red hair, even the same slightly upturned nose. He looked older than the photo I'd seen of him and my mind was telling me I was just making it up, putting his features on another face and claiming it was him, that was probably true but right now it didn't matter._

 _"Hi, dad." I replied, like this happened all the time, it was a stupid start to a conversation with someone you'd longed to meet your entire life but I couldn't come up with anything else._

 _"I wish I could be there," My father said and I nodded, "I wish I could tell you everything will be okay but I can't lie to you and I don't know that it will." I nodded again, dream me was a lot more understanding than real me. Real me would have shouted, a lot, cursed him and cussed at him, real me wouldn't have understood at all._

 _"You're very important," My dad continued, "So much more important than I ever realised you'd be and not just to me."_

 _"Aunt Viv said I'm important too," I replied and he smiled at her name liked it shone like sunshine when I said it._

 _"Oh, Viviane." He said more to himself than to me, it seemed to shine even brighter when he said it. The white around us began to dim, fading into grey._

 _"We haven't much time," My dad said, "You need to prepare yourself, Jem." He told me._

 _"Prepare myself for what?" I asked but either he didn't hear me or he simply didn't care that I'd spoken._

 _"You need to prepare yourself." He repeated and repeated my own question back to him but everything was fading around me and he seemed to be getting_

 _further away though he was stood still._

 _"Prepare myself for what?!" I called out to him as the world around me fizzled into darkness and then..._

I woke up.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _I haven't the foggiest idea what i am doing... i ramble on for pages and pages and hope some of it is worth reading. Hopefully this was. **~RainbowVeins**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Damon POV**

When I came too I felt like I'd been hit with a hammer and a pretty big one at that. Worse than that, I could feel... Well just that I could _feel_. It was like whatever that girl had done, had knocked the humanity switch inside me back on and God, I felt lousy. I felt guilty and I felt ashamed.

A little away from me I could hear Stefan stirring and I pulled myself up and quicker than lightning was at his side to offer him a hand. I wonder if she'd done the same to him but with Stefan it was easy to tell, from the gleam in his eyes he was still switched off.

"You didn't happen to have a nice talk with our boss while you were out, did you?" I asked and Stefan shook his head, good. That meant that while Cade was in our heads, he may not know about what just happened, and he may not know that I was back to feeling human again.

For the last five months he'd had Stefan and I traipsing up and down the country killing people to feed his soul quota but now he'd gone quiet and Stefan had thought we should take a trip home to stir up some fun. Well we'd stirred something and it wasn't all that fun.

I wanted to be strong right now but all I could think of was how disappointed and upset Elena was going to be when she woke up and I could not bare that pain but I could not bare knowing how much worse she would feel if I turned the pain off again now.

"He's still plotting, I guess." Stefan suggested and I concurred. "Well, seen as you lost us our dinner, I guess I'll have to find someone else to play with." Stefan continued and I really didn't like the look in his eyes, I'd seen that look and it usually meant a lot of death. I wanted to stop him, but I didn't want to let on that I was free and feeling, an unsuspecting Stefan was easier to work with.

"You go, I've some things of my own I'd like to do." I waved a hand at him lazily and he didn't even hesitate as he vampired out of the Grill. I needed to take a trip home, more importantly I needed to speak to the pretty little blonde vampire who was living there.

* * *

I could have rang the doorbell but even as humanity on Damon, that wasn't my style – plus it was my house. I didn't ring the doorbell, Instead I just walked in. I could hear music from the kitchen and I could smell baking. Stefan and I were out there murdering people and Caroline was _baking_.

"Well, look at you, the perfect housewife. Well house-almost-wife." I said leaning in the door way as I watched Caroline take cookies out of the oven. I wasn't prepared for the dart gun or the dart she put in my shoulder. Once again I was out like a light.

This time when I woke up I was in my all too familiar basement. "Aren't we over tying people up in the basement yet?" I called out as I struggled with the vervain soaked ropes that tied my hands behind my back and the chair I was sat on.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" Caroline asked as she opened the little flap on the door. "Shouldn't you be with Stefan murdering children or whatever Cade has you doing now."

"I'm feeling Caroline," I didn't take time to put it into a witty comment, I didn't have time. Cade could call me anytime and if I didn't come running, that'd mean trouble. For me and for everyone I cared about.

"Ha, like I'm going to believe that." Caroline replied.

"Believe it, Blondie." I told her, "Trust me I am feeling, I'm feeling so much it hurts and I want to turn it back off so badly but I can't." I watched her through the little flap, I needed her to look me in the eye and see how much I was telling the truth. "I can't because I know that if I do, Elena won't have a chance at forgiving me when she wakes up and I would rather die right here than have that happen." I pleaded at her with my eyes, hoping as much as I could in the fog of guilt I was feeling. Then I heard the lock click and the door swung open.

"Where's Stefan? Caroline asked as she came in and started to untie me. Sure, here I was against my best judgement and all she could think about was her boyfriend.

"He's still gone, Caroline." I told her, rubbing my wrists as the vervain burns already started to fade.

"So, how are you back?" She questioned.

I explained to her that I wasn't back, I was still under Cade's thumb but I'd had my emotions forced back on by a girl I suspected was a pretty strong witch.

"Did you recognise her at all?" Caroline asked, I'd forgotten how annoying she could be with all her questions. "I haven't heard of any new witches in town and Bonnie is off with Enzo on some kind of round the world trip or something." I didn't recognise the witch at all and I told Caroline this. She told me she'd look around, she had a source that might be able to help.

"She had green eyes," I began to describe the girl I'd bitten, tried to kill. "But they weren't just green, they were green." Caroline rolled her eyes at me and made a comment about my _fantastic_ description skills but this green wasn't describable, it was so pure, I'd never seen anything like it before, I could compare it to emeralds but even that wouldn't be enough.

"She had dark red hair," I continued and that I could describe, "Like blood red, just pulling from her hair, right down to her waist." Which reminded me of another way to describe her, "And she's short, like taking the ring to Mordor short." Caroline made a mental note of my description as she put the cookies she was baking in a Tupperware box and clicked on the lid and put the box in the cupboard above the microwave.

"Well I've nothing more to do today and I'm not seeing my contact till tomorrow, you can hang around here or not." She said and grabbed her coat from the other room, she obviously didn't want to be around me, humanity on or not. "I don't care," She finished coming back into the kitchen. "Just try and stay human while I figure this out and maybe try and keep Stefan on a leash." She was right, I probably should try and make sure Stefan didn't kill too many people, I may feel awful now but if no one does guilt like Stefan Salvatore and he was going to be in a sea of guilt when he finally woke up.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _I prefer POV chapters. **~RainbowVeins**_


	4. Chapter 4

I'd woken up cold and wrapped tightly in my sheets. It had been dark in my room and the alarm clock on my nightstand read almost two in the morning. I'd slept almost eleven hours since I'd got home yesterday and somehow I still felt exhausted. With a sigh I'd pulled myself out of bed, flicked on the lamp and began to search through my mother's drawers for anything to keep my mind occupied, so I wouldn't have to focus on the dream.

In a drawer on her dresser I found three diaries, each labelled a different year, my mother never wrote any information down in all the years I had know her yet here was three years worth of writing all neatly packaged in a little set of books. I didn't really know my mother, but I was about to get to know a version of her.

I'd climbed back into bed, taking the earliest dated diary with me and began to read.

I don't know how long I'd read for but at some point I'd fallen back to sleep, I didn't dream this time or at least nothing I remembered anyway. I woke up again around midday, I still felt tired but Aunt Vivian insisted I get up, I put mum's diaries back in the drawer I'd found them, I had a feeling Aunt Viv would confiscate them if she knew I had them and moved from my bed to the couch where I stayed all day watching crappy day-time TV shows and eating whatever unhealthy snacks I could find in Aunt Viv's cupboards – there weren't many. Aunt Viv pottered around me, cleaning or working, whatever she was doing I didn't really care.

Around five my aunt sent me upstairs to get washed and dressed, I had two hours to be presentable to her vampire friend. I'd be presentable alright, along with whatever weapons I could find. I wasn't about to trust one of the creatures that had attacked me no matter how nice my Aunt said she was.

The doorbell ran at exactly seven and when Aunt Viv opened the door I stood at the top of the stairs, looking through the banister railings. The vampire was pretty, all blonde curls and flawless skin. She looked nothing like I expected a vampire to look, but then again neither had the guys who attacked me.

"Hi, Viv." She said in a sing song voice, entering the house and putting her coat on the rack like she came here all the time, and for all I knew she probably did. "Something smells good." She commented and I had to agree with her, whatever my aunt was cooking for dinner had made my stomach growl with hunger more than once while I was sharpening pencils and hiding them in my boots and sleeves. Every book said it the same, wood killed vampires.

"I brought cookies." The vampire said, holding up a plastic box. My aunt closed the front door and led the girl away into the kitchen commenting on how nice she was. I couldn't hear much of their conversation after that but then my aunt called for me to come downstairs. With heavy feet I descended the stairs.

"Caroline this is my niece, Jem." Aunt Viviane said as I entered the kitchen, the vampire was helping herself to plates from our cupboard, she nearly dropped them when she turned to look at me and I let a pencil fall out of my sleeve a little so that I was ready for whatever attack she was planning.

"Caroline," My aunt said, worry obvious in her voice. "Are you okay?"

Caroline explained a little over dinner. All the time my aunt looked more and more worried, she kept casting glances over at me. I didn't know what to think, this was all new to me. Eventually my aunt said I could go to bed, it was more an order than option and I slunk off up the stairs. I stopped halfway to listen to their conversation. I could only hear snippets but what I could hear didn't sound good.

"She could be the answer we need, Viv." Caroline was saying,

"No, she's not ready, she doesn't even know about any of this." Vivian was protesting. I don't know why she was treating me like such a child, I could make my own decisions, why didn't they just ask me?

I didn't go to bed, I went back downstairs and into the kitchen, "You could ask me what I want." I said, my aunt looked horrified to see me, she had never had children, she obviously didn't know that they could disobey.

"Jem, go back upstairs – " she began to tell me but I shook my head at her and cut her off.

"Whatever's going on, I can apparently help. " I said, "I'm a naturally selfish person, I don't do things for other people but – and I don't know why - but I feel like I need to help."

My Aunt looked tired all of a sudden, like she couldn't fight it anymore, "You need to be prepared." She said and it reminded me of my dream, a shiver went up my spine. "I can't do it, we were supposed to do it together, your mother and I, we were supposed to prepare you for what you were supposed to do." But my mother had run, she had run from this because she had wanted to protect me from whatever I was supposed to do and now I was unprepared for it.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked and my Aunt shrugged, told me she didn't know exactly but it involved everyone and everything and me.

"My friend's brother attacked you yesterday." Caroline piped up, "He'd turned off his humanity so he couldn't feel the weight of what killing you would have done to him but when he bit you, I don't really know what happened but you turned his humanity back on."

"I think we need to figure out what you are, before we can figure out what you do." She suggested, it seemed logical and I wanted to know anyway. "Did your mum maybe leave clues?" My aunt shook her head, I guess she didn't know about the diaries either.

"There are some diaries in her room, I've read about half of the first one and nothing so far but as far as I can tell she hasn't met my dad yet. Maybe one of those has something." I suggested.

"It's a start." Caroline replied.

And that's how I started on a path there would be no turning back from.


	5. Chapter 5

**Damon POV**

She looked like a startled rabbit any time I went too close to her, I understood why but it was frustrating, for some reason I wanted to be near her. Caroline had brought the girl to Salvatore house this morning and her eyes were just as indescribable as I remembered. She sat in in an armchair in my living room reading an old handwritten book while Caroline tried to get hold of Rick on the phone to see if he could dig anything up for them, harder than you might think since he'd gone into hiding with his kids.

Underneath all that calm, I reckoned Caroline was going nuts, she'd lost her boyfriend and her kids and Bonnie was off doing god knows what. I felt a little sorry for her.

I went into the living room to pour myself a drink and the girl did it again, she stiffened so much she may as well have been a statue.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you again." I told her, "As far as I'm aware, you're the best chance I have of getting my brother back, you're untouchable right now by anyone, especially me." She didn't seem to relax at all.

"I don't trust you." She spoke calmly and firmly but she still didn't move much, maybe she thought if she moved I'd attacked. "I don't really want to help you." She carried on, "I don't care about any of you but something in my head is telling me I can't walk away." She stood up now, which surprised me a little. "That's the only reason I'm here." I nodded, poured my drink and left.

"She's crazy." I said to Caroline as I entered the kitchen, Caroline shushed me until she hung up the phone rather violently.

"I can't find Rick anywhere," She complained, shoving her phone in her pocket.

"Isn't that the point?" I asked and if looks could kill , I'd have been dead on the spot.

* * *

We spent all day searching for something, anything that might explain at least a little bit of what our next move should be. Caroline made Jem dinner and Jem read, and read, and read. It was getting late, and she was falling asleep as she turned the page. I touched her shoulder to shake her awake but I didn't get chance to shake her when I saw that white light again.

This time it was different – there was no pain, just the light and when it faded the girl was wide awake and absolutely terrified. I moved my hand away as quickly as I could but it didn't seem to help, she stared at nothing, her eyes glazed over in fear.

Then she spoke, "He knows I am coming." He voice was strange, it was hers but it was distorted somehow, and then she passed out.

Caroline was still yelling at me when she woke up again.

"Well hello, sleepy head." I said and Caroline looked over her shoulder, she rushed to Jem's side as soon as she saw she was awake.

"Jem, are you okay?" She asked in that way only mother's could. Jem looked liked she'd seen death himself but she still said she was fine.

"I'm okay," She assured us, "But he knows, I'm coming and he _fears_ me."

She explained she meant Cade and how she had seen him in my head, stood before him in his own throne room and he'd feared her arrival. The devil himself had feared the presence of a girl who was barely out of the kids section at the GAP. Something about that told me we should all fear her.

"Can you unwire me from him?" I asked, "If you can get into my head and see him, maybe you can stop him from being in there at all."

She looked worried, like she didn't want to disappoint but knew that she was going to.

"I don't know how it works, Damon." She said and for the first time, she sounded small, like her voice finally fit her size.

"Well I guess we'll figure it out then." I told her, but not now, she'd been inside my head and he'd seen her and now he was calling my brother and I back to him. I could feel him tugging at my mind. "He's calling me, I have to go." I told them and began to head for the door.

I don't know what possessed her at that point but whatever it was caused Jem to leaped from her seat and grab my hand so tight that even with my vampire strength I couldn't pull away and there was that light again.


End file.
